The leaked email sent by Jupiter Capital’s Chief Operating Officer Amit Gupta to the editorial heads of media outlets including Malayalam news channel Asianet News, Kannada news channel Suvarna News, web portal Newsable and newspaper Kannada Prabha has been making the rounds in the media for the past couple of days.
The email, wherein it is specified that recruitment of fresh talent into the above-mentioned media houses should be only done “if the ideologies of the candidate matches with that of chairman Rajeev Chandrasekhar”, has kicked off a series of controversies and speculations regarding the recent appointment of Mr. Chandrasekhar as the vice-chairman of the Kerala unit of NDA.
The leaked email was published by Newslaundry. The Kochi Post also had carried a story regarding the same explaining the issue in detail. We had approached Mr. Chandrasekhar and Asianet News Chief Editor M.G. Radhakrishnan regarding the authenticity of the leaked email. Mr. Radhakrishnan commented that it is a “fraud email’’, which justifies the explanation given by Mr. Gupta that the email account was hacked and that the mail was not sent by him.
Mr. Chandrasekhar’s office also responded to the issue and in his defence said that the email was not an original one and that Mr. Chandrasekhar is in no way associated with its contents.
The statement is as follows:
Jupiter Capital is an investor in various companies in media and technology. It has a track record of successful investments in entertainment, technology and media including NDTV, Asianet News, etc. These companies are managed by their boards and independent managements. The question of directing companies on editorial content, hiring and other operational aspects by Mr. Chandrasekhar doesn’t arise. Mr. Chandrasekhar is not a member of any of these boards or managements. Asianet News is a media company in which Jupiter Capital has invested and has a well-earned reputation for its fierce independent coverage of news. It’s the market leader because of that. Its sister brands are SuvarnaNews24x7, Kannada Prabha and AsianetNewsable. Jupiter Capital has invested in other media companies as well. Alleged emails of the kind as reported by the newslaundry.com and mentioned as references in your story on kochipost.com have originated without the knowledge and consent of Mr. Chandrasekhar. However, to get further details, I humbly request you that specific questions about the companies may be referred to them directly.
Mr. Chandrasekhar has been holding the Office of a Member of Parliament for 10 years now and has an impeccable record of service & integrity.
Despite the explanations from the MP’s office and Jupiter Capital, which say that media has conjectured the issue, doubts on why Mr. Chandrasekhar is trying to make a dent in Kerala politics have still not been cleared. The BJP seems to have an agenda behind appointing Mr. Chandrasekhar and the entire issue is more complex than it seems.
Main photograph from Facebook.
